


A Light in the Dark

by d_s_t_e



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-30
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-09-30 23:42:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20455499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/d_s_t_e/pseuds/d_s_t_e
Summary: Mr. Gold has been the Dark One for centuries, a man ruled by contradictions. His love for Belle has become the driving force of his life... except when he is required to choose between her and power. He loves his magic even though it drives Belle away from him. He often has good intentions but commits great evil in their name. What happens when Mr. Hyde provides an offer that makes him realize that he has been his own worst enemy?This is an alternate version of events following the Season Five finale.





	1. A Deal

_Previously on _Once Upon a Time_: Belle put herself under a sleeping curse to save her unborn child from Hades, warning Gold as she did so that he would not be able to break it with his kiss. Robin Hood and Regina had an encounter with Hades that ended in him killing Robin with the Olympian crystal. Realizing the man she loved was evil, Zelena used the crystal to kill Hades. Zelena, Snow, David, and Hook were accidentally transported to the Land of Untold Stories, where they met and brought back Dr. Jekyll. Mr. Hyde stole the box in which Gold had placed the sleeping Belle. As Gold was trying to kill him, Hyde managed to choke out that he could help wake Belle._

Mr. Gold stood in the cluttered laboratory, watching the monstrous Mr. Hyde massage his throat, where the marks left by Gold's magical chokehold were already laying claim. He had released that hold only reluctantly, conditional upon the information Hyde had promised to reveal. He longed to watch the man choke and struggle until the magic snuffed the life out from his worthless body, but another cry rang out from deep within—I must save Belle.

Hyde was in the middle of offering an explanation that Gold hoped would turn out to be a good one.

"I've been the warden here to many from all distant lands," Hyde said, striding past him as an upraised finger beat out syllables of emphasis. "I've learned much. There is one place that has the answer you seek."

Gold turned to face him. "Where?"

Hyde took a step closer, the fresh marks of blood on his cheek and in a burst vessel in his right eye coming into even sharper detail. He looked Mr. Gold head on. "I think it's time we talk about a deal."

He spoke the words slowly, combined with a manner and expression meant to convey power and the hint of a threat.

"You can't let him talk to you like that," the darkness inside him thought. "Your power is stronger than he could ever dream of. He should be quaking at your feet."

"What is it that you want?" he said.

Hyde let out a smile so small that it barely touched his face. "I want you to take my companions and I back to this Storybrooke you come from. I want to give them a place for their stories to play out, under my rule."

"In exchange for Belle's safe return and the information that you promised?"

"Of course," Hyde said in a low voice.

"I can arrange such a transport." Gold lifted his right hand from the gold handle of his walking cane and extended it to meet with Hyde's.

As they shook hands, the darkness inside him felt a small sense of satisfaction. All Dark Ones love to make a deal.

"Now," he said, "I repeat my question. Where is this land that holds the magic I require?"

The smile returned to Hyde's face as he withdrew his hand. "We have not far to go, for the land of which I speak is my very own."

Gold scowled, imagining how pleasurable it would be to tear the man's heart from his chest and crumble it to dust. He said, much more mildly, "You dirty, rotten trickster."

"Dr. Jekyll did not get all of the brains when he and I were separated. That will be a stroke of luck for you as well because the solution I'm proposing is that you use the serum on yourself."

"You want me to split myself in half?"

"I know there is a part of you that loves this woman, this Belle." Hyde strode across the room to a table he had been standing near when Gold entered. "I also know that Belle is under a curse that can only be broken by true love's kiss. The fact that you are searching so desperately for another answer tells me that your kiss is... ineffective." He reached behind a pile of scientific equipment and lifted up the Pandora's Box that trapped Belle inside, brushing a finger across its decorated metal surface with a mocking tenderness.

Gold traced the movements, just barely preventing himself from using the tiny bit of magic it would take to break that finger. "Your point?"

"If you could separate the part of you that loves her, which I am assuming that she loves in return, your kiss would wake her. You could have all the happiness that you desire while your darker half is freed from this weakness that is so unbecoming in a man of your reputation." Hyde caressed the box again, his thumb circling over the raised image of the wheel on its side.

Gold desperately wanted to tear the box from his filthy hands, to take back what was his, to rescue his beloved. Hyde was a threat to her. Hyde was not worthy to touch even the box that contained her. His motives were in conflict, and so, he realized, were his desires.

He wanted, more than anything, to be the man who deserved Belle's love and the man who would show her the love that she herself deserved so much. He wanted to give up all the magic in the world just to prevent himself from ever again doing the evil that she loathed.

But that was only half of him. The other half could never imagine wanting anything more than he wanted power. He was considering Hyde's suggestion that his love for Belle made him weak, and he wanted to tear away that weakness. He wanted the freedom of unrestrained power, and he realized that he had been held back from this for far too long by these silly affections.

If only he could separate, he could be with Belle and have the power he had always craved, both at the same time.

His eyes moved back to Hyde. "Give me the recipe."

***

Regina pushed open the door of Granny's Diner with such force that the blinds clacked angrily against the glass. She didn't even wait until she reached the front counter before announcing: "We've got a problem. Hyde is here."

David stood from one of the center booths. "What?"

"Dr. Jekyll's other half? I thought you left him back in the Land of Untold Stories," Emma said from the barstool she was sitting on.

"Aye, that we did," Hook said from his position next to her. "He tried to jump in the portal after us, but it closed too quickly for him."

Regina put her hands on her hips. "Well that may be so, but apparently he made a deal with Gold. He claims that Storybrooke belongs to him now."

"What?" Emma stood up immediately, but she was interrupted by a timorous voice.

"Can the Dark One really do that? Offer up the entire town I mean?" Dr. Jekyll approached the counter slowly, wringing his hands.

"Not while I have anything to say about it," Emma said, pulling at her red leather jacket as if it were proof of her authority.

"Hold up, Swan. Dealing with Hyde would be one thing, but he didn't come alone. He told me that he brought 'friends' from the Land of Untold Stories. We need to stop and think about what we're getting into here."

"She's right, Love," Hook agreed. "Hyde is not a man to be trifled with. Even on his own he's a monster. Zelena gave him a good blast of magic when we were trying to escape, and he just absorbed it all like it was nothing to him."

"Hyde is very powerful," Dr. Jekyll said. "I thought that I was free of him for good, and now he's come here to threaten all of you. I am so sorry."

"It's not your fault," David assured him.

"So you're saying we need to know more about what we're up against," Henry said, sliding out of the booth that David had emerged from earlier. "I wasn't with you in the Land of Untold Stories, but when Violet and I were in the rare reading room at the New York Public Library, I found an entire shelf of storybooks that looked just like mine. One of them had Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in it. I bet if I went back for it I could find tons of information about Hyde and whoever he brought back with him."

Emma looked at him. "Normally I would be against letting you run off to New York without one of us..."

Henry groaned. "Mom, I'm not a kid anymore. I want to help."

"He is the Author," Regina pointed out. "If anyone knows how to find stories, it's him. Besides, with Hyde and his people here, it's probably more dangerous to stay in Storybrooke than it is to leave."

Emma nodded. "I agree. On the condition that you take someone else with you and promise to be careful."

"I'll see if Violet can come," he said brightly. As he dashed out the door with his striped scarf flapping, he turned back to call, "Thanks, Moms!"

"In the meantime," Hook said, "I suggest we take this problem to its source."

"Gold."

"Aye."

***

Mr. Gold held Pandora's Box gently as he swirled his right hand in a circle over it, releasing dense clouds of magenta-colored smoke that wafted to the small bed pressed up against the wall. The smoke dissipated to reveal a woman whose long brown hair tumbled down onto the patterned red pillow. Her eyes were closed, but her lightly penciled eyebrows were pulled in as though disturbed by something in a dream. He leaned down to stroke her cheek.

"It won't be long now. As soon as I've added the last ingredient, I'm going to save you from this curse. I promise to stay by your side and never allow anything like this to happen again. I love you, Belle."

He straightened up and turned to the round wooden table behind him, on which a vial full of blue liquid was resting in a wooden test tube rack. He picked up the pair of scissors beside it and used them to cut off a single blossom on the sprig of blue flowers he had brought with him. Uncorking the vial, he squeezed the flower vine to mix the juice into the serum. As he shook it lightly, the liquid changed from blue to a deep red. Finally, he picked up the large silver needle he had brought back from Hyde's homeland and dipped it in, drawing the serum into the barrel exactly as Hyde had shown him.

He found the whole practice rather distasteful. Master of dark magic that he was, this was something foreign to him. It didn't have the air of the Enchanted Forest about it at all; if it had, he could have called it a potion and treated it as such. This was magic mixed with science, which was not a study of any particular importance in his own homeland. He was certain it would be effective, but he couldn't contain the shudder that rippled through him as he raised the needle to his arm and pierced through to the vein.

He pushed down the plunger and immediately felt the magic coursing through his body like acid. He shook again as the sensation of ripping and tearing cascaded through his tissues. He cried out in pain, but his voice was choked as paralysis took hold of his body. The tearing moved down to his torso, where, at the lower portion of his vision, he saw his own head pushing through his chest, covered in spasms of magic the color of veins and arteries. The pain intensified as the head pulled its way free, developing shoulders, then a torso, and finally tumbling to the floor.

A man with oily metallic-colored skin, curly, unkempt hair, and blackened fingernails lay flat on his back, dressed in tight leather from head to toe.

His sense of himself crashed over him like a wave. The darkness that had controlled him for so long paralyzed him by its sudden absence. The darkness lay there on the floor, in all its ugliness. He was Rumplestiltskin again, the man that he had been before the curse, the hero he had become in his short time apart from it.

The Dark One rose from the floor with a grin that revealed crooked yellow teeth. "Ah, it's good to be free."

Too late, Rumplestiltskin realized that the Dark One had landed between himself and the bed. He tried to run to Belle, but the Dark One caught him with an outstretched arm. "Not so fast, dearie."

Rumplestiltskin was an ordinary man. All of his magical abilities had come from the darkness, which meant that the man in front of him had all the power while he had none.

"I never should have let you out," he realized with horror, taking a few steps back. "I've made a terrible mistake."

The Dark One giggled. "What to do, what to do. Here I have this lovely lady—"

"Leave Belle alone!" He rushed forward again, only to be met by a blast of dark magic that knocked him off his feet. His back slammed into the table, making the scientific equipment crash and shatter on the floor. He dropped his cane, which the Dark One kicked away.

"—And here I have the man whose love for her has spoiled all the finest of my plans. The bleeding heart that tied my hands. We've been living in a town full of heroes and we haven't killed a single one of them! We haven't taken power for ourselves. We've been chasing after _Belle_." He said the name with a sneer and switched his voice to a tone of mocking. "Belle, do you love me? Belle, please take me back. Belle, I promise I can change."

Rumplestiltskin rose from the floor with a groan, wincing with the pain and trying not to put any weight on his perpetually-injured leg.

"It was all because of her."

As the Dark One turned to face her, Rumplestiltskin reached down to scoop up the pair of metal scissors he had used to cut the flower.

"But, no, that's not right. It was all because of you."

The Dark One turned around, forcing Rumplestiltskin to hide the scissors behind his back. He tried to play off the sudden motion by resting the palm of the hand that held them against the surface of the table, as if trying to support his leg.

"Even before she came along, you were always getting in the way. Before her, it was Baelfire, and now it's through that son of yours that you have that grandson. You've spared the life of Emma Swan just because she's his mother! And they're not the only ones. You feel friendship and affection for these people. Killing Belle won't solve my problems—"

The front door of the shop banged open. "Gold! I know you're in here!"

Distracted by the Savior's voice, the Dark One turned his head. Rumplestiltskin lunged forward, burying the scissors deep into the Dark One's chest. The Dark One cried out with surprise, but Rumplestiltskin knew that this hurt like a scraped elbow to him. He wouldn't gain much time, but it was enough for him to press his lips against Belle's.

He felt the immediate response of warmth returning to her face. As she gasped for breath, he whispered to her, "Run!"

The Dark One yanked the scissors from his chest and turned them on his counterpart. He extended his right hand to magically hold Rumplestiltskin in place, whose cries were drowned out by the sound of Emma, Hook, Regina, and David calling out together from the front room. Belle's eyes flickered open.

"But killing you will," the Dark One finished. He drove the scissors into Rumplestiltskin's heart.


	2. Darkness Unleashed

Belle had expected to find two men standing by her when she awoke from the curse, but she had expected one of them to be her father. She'd told Rumple that his kiss would not carry the power of true love, so her father was the only one who should have been able to awaken her. But Rumple was the only one here.

It was strange that he seemed to be split into two different people. One looked the way he had when he had forced her into servitude in the Enchanted Forest. The other looked like—there was no other way to describe it—_her _Rumple.

His outward appearance was far different from the creature beside him, of course. One was dirty and unkempt while the other was well-groomed with clear skin and smooth hair. One wore leather while the other wore a finely tailored suit. Still, she felt that even if he had been covered in mud and looked nothing like his old self underneath she would recognize her true love. And he was being choked to death.

Her eyes darted to the Dark One, who met her gaze with a silly grin. Then he raised his right hand high and plunged a pair of metal scissors into her true love's heart. His body burst into a cloud of dust.

"Rumple!" she cried, jolting upright.

The Dark One cackled and disappeared with a pop.

She heard David's voice call out, "Belle?" Then he, Emma, Regina, and Hook ran into the room.

"Belle, you're awake!" Emma said. "What happened?"

"Rumple," Belle moaned through her tears. "He's dead."

"The crocodile is dead?" Hook asked in disbelief.

Belle shook her head. "No, only half of him is. I think. I don't know how to explain."

Regina, who had been walking around the room, leaned down to pick up a heavy hypodermic needle. "It looks like he used Dr. Jekyll's serum. That must be what he got in payment for bringing Hyde and the others."

"I don't understand," Belle said.

David sat down on the bed beside her and took her hand comfortingly. "While Gold was trying to find a way to wake you, we ran into some men named Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. They're really two halves of the same man, only one of them has all of his goodness and one of them has all the evil. He separated the good from the bad by using a special serum he invented."

"And Rumple made a deal with him to get the serum so that he could wake me," Belle concluded.

David sighed. "Unfortunately, that seems to be the case."

Emma cut in, "Belle, I know that you're upset, but this is important. Which half of Mr. Gold died?"

"The good half," she sobbed.

"Are you sure?"

She nodded. "The other half looks like the Dark One from the Enchanted Forest."

David looked at Emma. "This is bad."

"Aye," Hook agreed. "There's no telling what the crocodile will do now. Emma and I know firsthand how difficult it can be to control the darkness while it's inside of you, and now that it's come untethered..."

"It could destroy the entire town," Emma finished.

"Or worse," Regina said grimly. "We have to stop him."

"If he really is pure evil," Belle said, "I don't know how we're going to contain him. At this point he's just... a monster." She shuddered, recalling the grin of pure delight as he forced her to witness the murder of her husband. That man wasn't Rumple anymore. He might not even be a man. "I think we need to kill him."

***

The Dark One materialized in a secluded spot in the middle of the woods. From the second his feet touched the ground, he felt the dagger calling out to him. He had hidden it here in the hope that any connection Emma and Hook might retain to it would weaken with distance. This was the furthest place from the town that was still within the borders of Storybrooke.

He realized now, though, that all of his previous attempts to keep the dagger hidden had been worse than idiocy. Why leave the one object that could be used to control or destroy him lying around where anyone could find it? Sure, this time he had buried it inside a box sealed with blood magic, but it wouldn't take anything more than one spunky band of heroes including Henry to break that top-notch security.

As he scooped his hand to magically lift the dirt covering the dagger's box, the Dark One shook his head. That boy was a danger to him. He knew that he would have killed him long ago had it not been for the goodness inside of him, but now he had better plans.

He reached down into the fresh hole and lifted out the box, waving his hand across its surface to unlock it. He pulled out the dagger and hung it at his side. The safest way was to keep it with him at all times. Since he never slept, he could keep constant watch over it and defend it with all his powers. It made such perfect sense that he marveled at how the good part of him had twisted his mind, making him think that he was hiding the dagger when it had secretly wanted the dagger to be stolen all along.

Now that this was taken care of, he would be safe to carry out his plan, which was, of course, Henry. This was, again, so simple that he marveled at the fact that it had never been fully capitalized upon. Henry was the key to all of Storybrooke.

He was Regina's adopted son and Emma's biological son. He was Snow and David's grandson. He was Zelena's nephew. Belle was a sort of step-grandmother, and Hook was practically a step-father. Every single one of the most powerful figures in town had a family connection to him, most of them brimming over with that weakness they called love. Their love for him would be their weakness.

If he took the boy, made it impossible to rescue him, and actively threatened his life, every single one of them would fall into line at the Dark One's feet. They would be his slaves for an entire lifetime.

The best part, though, was that none of them would know his primary intentions for capturing the boy. The weakness of their love made Henry's family continuously underestimate him. They looked at the one with the most awesome and unstoppable power in all the realms and saw nothing more than their "baby". The Dark One saw the Author for who he was, and he wanted that power for himself.

He rubbed his hands together eagerly, imagining what he could do with the Author's heart in the palm of his hand, forcing the magic quill to write out every word he dictated. He could reshape entire worlds.

Obviously, though, his plan would have to be executed perfectly. He couldn't remove Henry's heart from his chest because of Regina's protection spell on him, but he could steal Regina's heart and force her to remove it.

He giggled out loud. His mind was so perfectly clear and so unalterably tailored for pure evil. He should have split himself in half centuries ago.

***

Emma pulled open the desk drawer for the third time. "I can't find it. I swear I left the enchanted cuff right here after we decided that Zelena didn't need to wear it anymore."

"I believe you, Love," Hook said.

Framed by the iron bars of the jail cells behind her, Regina folded her arms. "The Dark One must have taken it."

Emma slammed the drawer shut. "How did he know that it was here?"

"In the Sheriff's Station?" Regina asked. "It doesn't take a brain surgeon to guess that's where you keep the tools for restraining people, magical or not."

Emma walked out from behind the desk, resting her arm on the boxy white surface of the computer they never used. "Well, what do we do now?"

"We hope our magic is enough," Regina said, as though it were completely obvious. "There's two of us and only one of him."

"Three of us," Hook corrected. "I'm not letting Emma go without me."

"Killian, I appreciate it, really, but it's not too late to join up with Dr. Jekyll and the others."

"Babysit the townsfolk while you're out risking your neck? No, Swan, I won't have it."

"David and Belle are with them, too," Emma pointed out.

"David went to find Snow and the baby, and Belle went to fetch Zelena, and you know it," Hook said.

"I just don't want to lose you." Secretly, Emma was skeptical of any help arriving from Zelena, and she was glad that her parents were safe behind the front lines. She wanted to get this wrapped up before they pawned off baby Neil on some of the townspeople they were supposed to be guarding and came out to join the fight. She wasn't even going to pretend that they weren't going to.

"And you won't lose me," Hook assured her, taking hold of her hand.

"Well, clearly, there's no convincing him," Regina said, turning her back angrily.

Emma immediately felt guilty. Although she claimed to be fine, Regina was still dealing with the death of Robin Hood. Watching this display of love must be painful to her. She withdrew her hand from Hook's and said, "Alright, we'll stick together, but I still don't know what we can expect to accomplish. Belle said that we should kill him, but I don't even know if it's possible to kill a Dark One without the dagger."

Regina turned around. "He already killed half of himself. Maybe drinking the serum changed the rules."

"Well, let's hope so," Hook sighed.

"Well, we can't stand by and let the darkness destroy the town. We'll have to try." Emma pushed open the frosted glass door of the office and led them down the short hallway beyond. "So," she said as she pushed open the outside door, "does anyone know the best place to find a Dark One?"

"How about right here, Dearie?"

"Hook! Regina!" Emma dashed out onto the sidewalk.

Across the street, the Dark One lounged on a bright green bench, one leg crossed over the other on its armrest. As the others rushed to respond to Emma's cry, he giggled and made a show of lazy stretching.

Regina conjured up a fireball to complement the glowing light in Emma's hand, and Hook drew out a long sword from a sheath.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you three against one ain't fair?" the Dark One joked as he stood up.

"I like my sister's saying better," Regina said. "Shoot first, ask questions later."

She threw the fireball, which he parried with a burst of his own magic that popped it like a firework. Hook rushed forward with his sword aloft, while Emma channeled waves of white light outwards from both hands.

The Dark One jumped to the side, hissing in pain as the light hit a portion of his arm. Emma's light cut off as Hook dashed into place. The first swing of his sword was parried with the Dark One's dagger, which was whipped out with reflexes of lightning. The two men continued to exchange blows as the Dark One slowly forced Hook to turn so that his body was between himself and Emma.

Regina ran across the street in search of a better angle while Emma shouted, "turn him towards me!"

Hook scored a gash in the Dark One's arm that left him open for another blast from Regina. This time, the fireball hit its target, leaving a huge black scorch in the leather that slowly smoked away to the skin underneath. The Dark One's eyes darted to where Regina was standing at just a small distance down the sidewalk from himself. With a wave of his hand, he sent Hook's sword flying into the street, and he turned to block a second of Regina's fireballs with a magic aura surrounding his dagger.

Before Hook could retrieve his weapon, the Dark One waved his hands again. Heavy iron chains appeared around both of Regina's wrists, their ends smashing down into the sidewalk. As she tugged against them, trying in vain to raise her hands up into a position from which she could aim, Hook bent down.

The blast of light that flew over the pirate's head hit the Dark One full on, and he screamed. Doubled over, he grasped his hand out blindly. Catching a shaky hold on Hook, he began to lift him by the throat.

Emma stopped her attack. "Killian!"

The Dark One growled. His face, hands, and every inch of exposed skin were covered in deep red boils, but his eyes were focused on Hook, whose legs kicked out frantically as he gasped for air.

"Stop!" Emma cried. She dashed to the side and shot out a burst of magic, but the Dark One moved Hook's body to block it. The pirate spasmed wildly as it hit the center of his back, and Emma bit her lip hard to fight back the pain it caused her.

"Surrender," the Dark One said. "Surrender now or I will kill him."

Hook's struggles were getting weaker, his gasps for breath now no more than a rusty squeak. Tears sprang into her eyes. "You win. Please don't kill him."

The Dark One loosened his hold just enough for Hook to take another gasp. "Come to me," he told her.

"Emma, this could be a trick!" Regina shouted, still struggling against the chains.

"I can't let him die!" Emma stepped into the street.

"The Dark One could kill us all!"

"If he wanted to kill us, he would have done it already."

"Clever girl," the Dark One said. As Emma took the last step to his side, he released his hold on Hook, who crashed to the pavement in an unceremonious heap. She turned her head, and, in the very next instant, she felt the pressure of the enchanted cuff slapped onto her right wrist.

Hook rolled onto his side and coughed loudly. The Dark One waved a hand and swept him across the ground to Emma's feet, causing her to cry out once more. As she crouched down to comfort him, she found heavy chains in the same style as Regina's springing up, connecting her left wrist to Hook's good arm.

"That should keep you still for a minute," the Dark One said cheerfully. He waved a hand over himself to clear up all his injuries.

"I'm sorry, Killian," Emma muttered, looking at his wounds. Because of the enchanted cuff, she couldn't use even a bit of magic to soothe his pain.

Hook coughed again. "I'm... sorry."

The Dark One gave a sigh of contentment and strode over to Regina.

"What do you want from me?" she demanded, glaring at him.

"Oh, nothing." He thrust a hand into her chest. "Just your heart."

She gasped as he ripped out the glowing red heart. He let out half a giggle before he stopped, finally holding the heart at an angle that Emma could see properly. "This is only half of a heart. And it's clean. After all of your dark deeds as the Evil Queen..." Comprehension flashed across his face. "You took the separation serum, too. The Evil Queen is out to play somewhere, isn't she? Tell the truth." He squeezed the heart to punctuate the command.

Regina's face contorted as though she was trying not to answer, but, as soon as he squeezed, her mouth opened like a perfect puppet's. "No, I killed her. I ripped out her heart and crushed it."

The Dark One smiled. "All the better for me, then. I see that half a heart works just as well for controlling half of you. We're going to have some fun. But first..." He squeezed her heart again. "Tell me where I can find that little brat of yours."


	3. A Spark of Hope

Belle had managed to find Zelena exactly where she had expected—at her farmhouse, waking baby Robin from a nap. She'd been reluctant to leave until Belle mentioned that David and Snow were taking their baby to the Convent of the Sisters of Saint Meissa, where the Blue Fairy was laying out a protection spell.

Zelena had looked down at the baby in her arms. "The fairies use light magic, don't they? I think that might be the only way to counter such powerful darkness. My own magic certainly didn't do any good against Hyde."

She followed Belle to the convent, where they met a large group of townspeople led by Dr. Jekyll as well as David and Snow. The fairies accepted Neal and Robin into their care, but they wholeheartedly refused to offer assistance for any plan that involved killing, even killing a force of pure evil.

David and Snow wanted to leave Belle behind, fearing that the task at hand would be too much for her to handle emotionally, but she steadfastly refused. Surprisingly enough, Zelena stood up for her, saying that she herself was proof that a woman could kill the man she loved if she had to and that they were wasting time arguing about it when her sister could be in danger.

Belle hadn't understood a word she was talking about until David explained on the way. She was relieved to learn that Hades was dead and that the contract that signed over her unborn child to him had been ripped up. She had assumed as much when she had woken up in Storybrooke—the good Rumple would never put their baby at risk by waking her prematurely—but she hadn't quite been able to lift the worry that Hades might still lurking somewhere.

She was just expressing this to David when he hissed, "Get down."

They were walking through a thin alleyway intersecting the street where the Sheriff's Station was located. As Belle and the others crouched obediently, a slow procession marched up the street. Emma and Hook were bound together with chains, pushed onward towards the Sheriff's Station by Regina, who held a glowing green fireball in hand.

"What's my sister doing?" Zelena demanded in a whisper. "Emma's magic might be the only thing we have that can kill the Dark One."

"She must be under his control," Belle whispered back. "Do you see the way she's moving?"

Although she was walking forward at a normal pace, every rise and fall of her foot seemed somehow robotic, the expression on her face glassed over as though in a dream.

"We have to rescue them," David said.

"Under the Dark One's control or not, I'm not going to hurt my sister," Zelena protested. Her voice grew louder as the procession moved out of earshot. "Besides, attacking her would only alert the Dark One. We need to find him and take back her heart."

"Or we split into two groups. One group will fight off the Dark One just as a distraction. His hold over Regina will slip, and then the other group can sneak into the Sheriff's Station and free Hook and Emma," Snow suggested.

David nodded. "Zelena, you'll need to use your magic to take off Emma's cuff."

"David and I will create the distraction," Snow said.

"And I'll stay here and help Zelena," Belle offered. She wasn't afraid of watching them attack the one holding the physical appearance of her love. She knew that was nothing but an empty shell filled with the darkness. The man she had fallen in love with back in the Enchanted Forest had been inside that shell, but he wasn't there anymore. It was his body, but it lacked his heart and soul.

No, she was offering to stay back from the fight because she had never been much good at one to start with. "Besides," she thought as her hand stroked the across her stomach, "I have to think about the baby."

"As much as I admire your bravery," Zelena told Snow and David with a hint of sarcasm. "The two of you just aren't cut out to fight the Dark One on your own."

The couple looked at each other as they straightened up. "We'll think of something."

***

Henry and Violet had just crossed the border into New Hampshire when Henry's cell phone rang. Frowning, he reached into his pocket and checked the name on screen.

"Grandpa?" His voice echoed the confusion that he felt. He might have expected a call from David, but, despite the fact that he did occasional work in the Pawnshop, he and Mr. Gold were hardly close.

"Henry, I'm afraid I have some bad news about your mom," said the voice on the other end of the line. "There's been an accident involving some of our new townspeople."

"Which mom? What happened?"

From the bus seat beside him, Violet looked over with concern.

"Emma. And it's really best if you see for yourself. I don't have much time to explain, but you need to come home right now."

"Alright," Henry said, "but..."

The line went dead.

He set the phone down on his lap. "Violet, we have to get off this bus at the next stop."

"Why?" she asked. "What happened?"

"I don't know, but it must be something bad. Grandpa wouldn't even talk about it."

She took his hand reassuringly. "It's alright. We haven't gone that far yet. Why don't you try calling the rest of your family to see if they answer?"

Henry nodded, picking up the phone again. "I hope they do."

***

David's cell phone had mysteriously stopped working, but he didn't notice because he and Snow had stumbled across a shouting match between the Dark One and Mr. Hyde, who were standing on a small front lawn in the residential area.

"You promised that Storybrooke was mine!" Hyde shouted, his fists bunched up and his face going red. Beside him stood Poole, who looked angry in a supportive kind of way.

"I promised you passage to Storybrooke," the Dark One corrected. "I never said you could have the whole town."

"It was heavily implied!"

The Dark One laughed. "'Implied' doesn't mean anything in a contract, dearie. Storybrooke wasn't mine to give away, but it soon will be."

"I will not let you take it from us," Hyde said. "Poole, gather our supporters!"

As the man ran off to the nearby houses, the Dark One frowned deeply. "If you won't cooperate, I'm going to have to kill you."

"I welcome you to try."

The Dark One responded with a blast of magic that tore a huge branch from a nearby tree and sent it rocketing towards Hyde.

Snow turned to David. "Do you think this is our distraction?"

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," David agreed, drawing his sword.

Hyde caught the branch with his outstretched hands and threw it to the ground with a shout of gargantuan strain. His muscles bulged and rippled with inhuman strength under the tight sleeves of his black coat.

The Dark One turned his head to narrowly escape a feathered arrow from Snow that went whizzing past his ear, and that was when doors all over the neighborhood burst open.

As David charged forward, he found himself overtaken by a horseback rider in Spanish-style armor shouting to a short fat man on a donkey and saw, from the opposite direction, a trio of men in feathered hats wielding rapiers. The crowd grew, filled with strange figures who darted past and slipped in and out of sight too quickly for David to identify. He focused on pushing his way forward to the center, where the Dark One was spinning in a circle, with dark magic whirling around him like a cyclone.

One of the rapiers twisted itself into a knot, an entire group of people were thrown into those behind them, and the very ground that David stood on shook. He swung at the Dark One's back, only to find that the man whirled around and caught the blade between two upraised fingers.

He gave a smile that chilled David to the bone and opened his mouth to speak, but a mass of black ink was suddenly thrown into his face. He froze in place before he could even register the shock.

"Everybody stop!" the thrower of the ink shouted, but Hyde was already in the middle of a charge.

His vicious battle cry continued as he rammed some kind of javelin directly through the Dark One's chest. The crowd cheered as he crumbled into dust. Two small objects fell into the grass.

David dove down for the small box at the same time that the man beside him reached for the Dark One's dagger, moaning, "the javelin must have been enchanted. Oh, I wish I had known what this strange new magic was capable of. That should have been impossible."

David turned to him for the first time. "Mr. Gold?"

"At your service," the man said with an ironic smile. "Although I really prefer to be called Rumplestiltskin."


	4. The Final Threat

Rumplestiltskin followed David and Snow back to the Sheriff's Station, where the Dark One's enchantments had been lifted and Regina, in the absence of anyone controlling her, had returned more or less to normal. As soon as he limped in the door, Belle gasped, tears filling her eyes.

"Gold?" Emma and Hook said simultaneously.

Belle ran to him with a cry of, "Rumple!"

Taken by surprise, he accepted her hug stiffly at first, but he recovered himself quickly. "Belle!" He held her tightly in his arms.

"David, what happened?" Regina demanded.

"It's kind of a long story."

"Well, give me the box first," Zelena demanded, marching over to him with hand outstretched.

David obeyed. Zelena opened it immediately, pulling out the glowing red half-heart. She tossed the box aside with disgust and pushed the heart back into her sister's chest. Regina gasped, her eyes immediately filling with tears.

Zelena backed away, her eyes wide. "I'm so sorry. Did I do something wrong?"

"No," Regina replied, wiping at her eyes angrily. "It's just the reminder of Robin. I didn't really care about anyone without my heart. You can't really love properly without one. I'll just have to get used to the pain again, that's all."

"Let's sit down," Zelena suggested, indicating a couple of small plastic chairs sitting along the far wall.

As the two sisters walked away, Belle asked, "Rumple, how can you be here? I saw you die."

"How do you know that it's me and not the Dark One coming to you in disguise?" he asked her in return.

"Well, when we saw all his enchantments lifted, we assumed that he was dead. There's more to it, though. I can't really explain it; I just knew as soon as I saw you."

"You always were able to find the good in me when no one else could see it."

"Well, how did you come back, then?" Emma repeated.

He turned to her. "It would appear that one half of a person can't die by the other half. That's what I thought when I found myself rematerializing, anyway. Now I can see I must refine that to say that one half of a person can't die as long as the other half lives on." He held up the dagger he had hung at his side. Clearly displayed on it was still the name: Rumplestiltskin. "The other half has all the Dark One's powers, but the dagger didn't change when he was killed. Killing the Dark One with a weapon other than the dagger should have expelled the darkness into the air, but it didn't. He's still alive because I am."

"The darkness needs a soul to feed off of," Emma said.

"Exactly. Even in a different body, the darkness must be tethered to me somehow," he said.

"So it's going to come back," Belle concluded.

He sighed and took her hand. "Unfortunately, yes. I went back to the shop for the squid ink because I was hoping to paralyze him, but that will all be undone when he comes back. That was the last of the squid ink, so I can't try that again. The worst part is that there's no telling when and where he'll reappear. It took me perhaps half an hour to come back to myself, but it may be different for him. I don't know."

"You have the Dark One's dagger," David pointed out. "Couldn't you just use that to control him?"

Rumplestiltskin held it up again. "You'll notice that the dagger doesn't say 'the Dark One' or 'one half of Rumplestiltskin' or anything like that. It still has my name, and, if the darkness is still linked to me, it probably controls us both."

"Well, we could still order both of you not to hurt anyone," David argued.

Rumplestiltskin sighed. "You could, but, honestly, having been that man, I wouldn't trust him farther than I could throw him. The longer we tried to control him, the more opportunities he would have to trick us into turning against each other or having a lapse in judgment and the more opportunities we would have to slip up or grow careless. He would break free eventually, and next time he might not take things so easy."

"That was taking it easy?" Hook asked.

"You're all still alive, aren't you? Now, as I was saying," Rumplestiltskin continued, "I think the only way to end this is for the two of us to become one again."

Belle looked horrified. "No!"

He turned to Emma and Hook, who had both known the power of the darkness firsthand. "Look, I know I'm not the best man. I'm nothing compared to you, Emma. The way you fought off the darkness is unheard of in all the centuries of Dark Ones who have struggled with the curse, but even you gave into it in the end. I know that I have as well, multiple times over. I have so much innocent blood on my hands that all the rivers in the world would not be able to wash them clean. I freely admit to who I am and to what I have done."

"That was because of the darkness," Belle argued.

"Yes, but I've done terrible things of my own accord as well. It was before I became the Dark One that I signed that awful contract that would have given our child over to Hades. It was after I had gotten free of the darkness that I tricked my way into stealing it back." His voice choked up. "I have been a coward. I have been enchanted by the power of the darkness to the point of addiction. I have been a terrible man at times, and yet there is also goodness. You can see it here. If there wasn't any good in the man I was at all, the potion wouldn't have had anything to split out. But it did, and here I am standing before you as living proof, as proof to myself.

"I have given in to the darkness, but I have also had moments in which I came close to holding it at bay. As I see it, I have two things going for me. The first is centuries of practice. I know the darkness and all its tricks. I know what works against it. That's important, but it's nothing more than a tool. And I can only wield it with the proper motivation. That is love."

He squeezed Belle's hand. "I love you, Belle, and I love our child. Having that love and knowing that I have yours in return is what helps me to fight against the darkness inside. When I have been the very best that I can be, it has been because of you and because of my family.

"When I had both you and Bay, I came so close. The darkness was almost quiet then. I was nearly ready to sacrifice myself to save Henry from Pan, and after everything worked out, I was ready to start the life I know you've always wanted for us."

"And then Pan came back and you sacrificed yourself for us," Belle remembered. "You were completely selfless. I understand now. I've been pushing you so hard to become a better man that I've failed to realize how difficult it is for you. When I kept saying I would leave and that I didn't love you anymore, it hurt you. You still loved me, but you didn't feel my support for you, so the darkness took over as you tried to win me back."

"Yes," he said. "I would do anything for our love, Belle, and sometimes the darkness twists that into something evil. Some of it is even in my nature, as I said before, but I know that someone needs to fight that darkness so the world we live in can be safe again. Safe for you. Safe for our child. Safe for everyone who lives in Storybrooke and all the lands in existence. I will make that sacrifice for you."

Belle burst into tears, wrapping him in an even tighter hug than before.

The others looked at each other. Regina and Zelena had returned in time to hear the last portion of the speech, but Rumplestiltskin couldn't tell yet what they thought about his plan.

"I don't know about this," Hook said uneasily. "I never did trust the crocodile."

"Well, I'm convinced," Snow said. "I've always believed that all people have goodness inside them. Maybe even the Dark One does. All people deserve a chance to change."

"Besides, we know that love is the most powerful magic," David added.

"And the enemy we know is better than the one we don't," Emma concluded. "I don't know about you, but I miss Gold."

"I second that," Regina said.

Zelena was the last to comment: "I don't care as long as this town becomes safe for my baby again."

Rumplestiltskin pulled out of Belle's hug once again. "Alright then, we don't have much time. I still don't know how to put the two halves of myself back together, and I would really like to know before the Dark One reappears."

Belle wiped at her tears. "That's something I can help with. I know every book inside the library, and it sounds to me like Dr. Jekyll discovered the original serum based on books he read in his world. If we combine his knowledge of the serum with my knowledge of our world, I think that we could find the right combination of ingredients to do the trick, but we'll have to hurry."

***

The Dark One crouched in the shadow of a building, watching the large public bus slowly pull up to the stop. He had lost Regina's heart, but he could still capture the Author.

He fixed his eyes on the young girl who stood beside him in the line to descend the steps of the bus. Yes, the Author had his weakness just as the others did. If he threatened the girl, the Author would fold to his demands. With powers of the magic quill, he could regain his dagger and force Henry to remove the protection from his own heart.

Henry and Violet took a few steps closer to the front of the bus, and he growled with impatience. Finally, the boy's head moved to a lower position in the windows. They were descending the stairs.

"Dark One, I summon thee," he heard Belle's voice say.

"What? No!" he cried, but it was too late. He teleported into the street in front of the clock tower, where two people were waiting for him.

"Don't move," he heard Belle command, and all his muscles froze solid.

She was holding his dagger, and beside her stood Rumplestiltskin, his other half. He knew he should have killed her. He should have allowed his other half to wake her up just to watch her die, slowly and painfully.

"Are you ready, Rumple?" Belle asked.

There was no response.

"You still can't move from where you're standing or attack anyone, but you are allowed to talk and move your head," she revised.

The Dark One burst out laughing. "The dagger controls you, too!"

Rumplestiltskin glared at him before turning to Belle. "Yes, I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

"Are you really sure about this?"

He nodded. "It's the only way."

"I'll do my best to support you from now on," she said. "I don't need you to be perfect; I just hate it when you do bad things. I'll remember to love you for who you are and not who I think that you should be."

"And I'll try to be the best man that I can be, for you, and for our baby," he replied. "My love for both of you will make me stronger than ever."

"Oh, gag me," the Dark One said, rolling his eyes. "I will dominate you every time because it is your love that makes you weak."

"Love isn't weakness," Rumplestiltskin argued. "Love allows you to do to do what would otherwise be impossible. Love is strength, and I will never forget that again."

Belle kissed him. The Dark One turned away, unable to stand the sight. He turned back only when he heard her begin to speak again.

"Alright," she said, pulling a needle filled with bright green liquid from her pocket, "this will only sting a little."

She injected half of it into Rumplestiltskin and then walked over to deliver the rest of the dose to him.

"What is that?" he demanded. "What are you doing to me?"

She didn't answer, instead holding up the dagger again. "Walk up to the 'X' in front of you."

There was, indeed, a large white "X" chalked into the street. The Dark One started walking towards it, only to find that his other half was walking towards it from the opposite direction, like a distorted reflection in a mirror.

"Stop this!" he cried. "Stop!"

The two of them collided.

***

Belle watched the two halves of the man she loved collide, their bodies twisting into each other as they screamed. Veins of blue and red magic pulsated until the two bodies became one, a man with clear skin and smooth hair wearing a dark black suit.

Belle took a deep breath. "Rumple, is that you?" Thinking twice, she held up the dagger again. "Tell the truth."

"Yes, I'm in control," he said. "For now."

She dropped the dagger and ran to him. Released from its hold, he met her, and the two shared a passionate kiss.

"For now" was not forever, but it would do. For now they were together. For now they were happy. And if their "ever after" was a little bumpy, at least they still had hope, burning on like a candle in the night.


End file.
